Volunteers help sort medical supplies at MedShare, new warehouse in San Leandro, Calif Sept 13, 2008. MedShare is a 10-year-old nonprofit based in Atlanta, that donates unused medical supplies that are shipped to developing countries or even used by local Bay Area community clinics. These are often supplies that come in surgical packets that remain sterile, but can't be reused for liability reasons, by local hospitals that make the donations. Photographed in San Leandro.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Volunteers help sort medical supplies at MedShare, new warehouse in...

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Volunteer Lori Sperry from San Ramon matches up medical supplies by using the samples on the wall before placing them in the appropriate barrels at MedShare in San Leandro, Calif Sept 13, 2008. MedShare is a 10-year-old nonprofit based in Atlanta, that donates unused medical supplies that are shipped to developing countries or even used by local Bay Area community clinics. These are often supplies that come in surgical packets that remain sterile, but can't be reused for liability reasons, by local hospitals that make the donations. Photographed in San Leandro.

Gerry Bertnik from Walnut Creek sorts a medical pack that had a small container of Sodium Chloride in it. Volunteers help sort medical supplies at MedShare, new warehouse in San Leandro, Calif Sept 13, 2008. MedShare is a 10-year-old nonprofit based in Atlanta, that donates unused medical supplies that are shipped to developing countries or even used by local Bay Area community clinics. These are often supplies that come in surgical packets that remain sterile, but can't be reused for liability reasons, by local hospitals that make the donations. Photographed in San Leandro.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Gerry Bertnik from Walnut Creek sorts a medical pack that had a...

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Volunteers Karen Queenan from Danville left, and Le Ann Kanowsky and her ten year old daughter Miranda from Pleasanton help sort medical supplies at MedShare, new warehouse in San Leandro, Calif Sept 13, 2008. MedShare is a 10-year-old nonprofit based in Atlanta, that donates unused medical supplies that are shipped to developing countries or even used by local Bay Area community clinics. These are often supplies that come in surgical packets that remain sterile, but can't be reused for liability reasons, by local hospitals that make the donations. Photographed in San Leandro.

About 6,500 boxes of medical supplies - sterile surgical sutures, syringes, gloves, slightly used walkers and wheelchairs, exam tables, gauze bandages - are piled up in a San Leandro warehouse, waiting to be shipped off to developing countries and health clinics that need them.

The warehouse, which started accepting supplies in August and is just beginning to ship the goods overseas, is the first expansion in the 10-year history of MedShare International, a nonprofit based in Decatur, Ga., that sends surplus medical materials overseas to hospital and medical clinics.

The organization uses a Web inventory management system that allows health care providers throughout the world to order exactly what they need.

"We're kind of like Big Lots for the relief world," said Chuck Haupt, who left the high-tech industry last year to run MedShare's western region.

The Bay Area's three largest hospital chains - Kaiser Permanente, Catholic Healthcare West and Sutter Health - have signed on as donor partners with MedShare, which uses a network of volunteers to collect supplies from the medical centers.

Hospitals are among the highest waste-generating industries in the United States, discarding more than 7,000 tons of trash and surplus material daily.

While statistics are unavailable on the percentage of that refuse that is reusable, as much as 80 to 85 percent of a health care facility's waste is nonhazardous solid waste - such as paper, cardboard, food waste, metal, glass and plastics, according to Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable hospitals and health care services.

"The health care sector is so wasteful - so obese, if you will - what we need to figure out is how to lose weight in the health care sector in United States," said Josh Karliner, international team coordinator for Health Care Without Harm, an international coalition of health groups including Practice Greenhealth.

Sterile items included

Medical supplies that could be salvaged include sterile items that are part of surgical kits or equipment, furniture and supplies that have been replaced with updated versions. While those materials could be used, they are generally discarded because it takes too much time, effort and expense on the part of the medical staff to collect and find some way to redistribute them.

The excess waste in the health care troubled the founders of Operation Access, a 15-year-old Bay Area organization that provides outpatient surgeries to the uninsured through a network of volunteer doctors and nurses.

More than two years ago, one of Operation Access' founders, Paul Hofmann, began researching methods to ship those excess supplies overseas. He discovered a number of smaller groups and individual efforts by dedicated providers but was quickly intrigued by MedShare.

Well-meaning groups sometimes ship materials overseas that the staff may not need, doesn't know how to use or is otherwise inappropriate, such as equipment with the wrong voltage, Hofmann said. MedShare's online ordering system, which is managed out of the Decatur headquarters and can be accessed from an Internet cafe in remote regions of developing countries, helps solve that problem.

"One of the most unique characteristics of MedShare is the recipient organization has the ability to be very precise," said Hofmann, president of the Hofmann Healthcare Group, a performance improvement consultancy in Moraga. "Whatever we ship to them is precisely what they need."

MedShare places bins outside operation rooms and other areas of the hospital that are picked up on a weekly basis. Volunteers at the distribution center sort and pack the supplies.

MedShare's chief executive officer and founder, A.B. Short, said Hofmann and two Bay Area medical doctors from Operation Access - San Francisco General's William Schecter and Douglas Grey from Kaiser - approached the organization just as MedShare was considering expanding.

"What we were looking for was a concentration of hospital beds in a transportation corridor that made sense from a logistics point of view," Short said, explaining that MedShare can collect materials primarily from Northern California hospitals and ship 40-foot containers, which hold about 1,100 boxes of supplies, out of the Port of Oakland.

Donations by Kaiser

Kaiser Permanente has donated a number of supplies, including 32 pallets of IV central line materials, 21 pallets of miscellaneous supplies and a forklift for the distribution center.

"Kaiser Permanente's relationship with MedShare is mutually beneficial. As we introduce newer and more accurate and efficient equipment into our facilities, we are able to avoid sending the replaced items to landfills," said Dean Edwards, Kaiser's chief procurement officer.

In addition to the environmental benefits, "the equipment we provide to MedShare has an extended useful life supporting populations in areas of the world that would not otherwise be able to afford access to such devices," he said.

Ironically, Short said, getting hospitals and manufacturers to donate excess medical supplies is the easy part. He said the tough part is having enough volunteers to keep pace with the collection and sorting of those supplies.

In San Leandro, more than 80 people have volunteered, requiring training sessions to be increased from every two weeks to four times a week.

Haupt said the group can use more participants but stressed that contributions to cover the cost of shipping the supplies overseas, about $20,000 per container, is the most pressing need.

The new distribution center already has exceeded its expectations for donations of medical supplies. Donations include 80 hospital beds from Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz and 60 examination tables from Woodland Healthcare, both affiliates of Catholic Healthcare West.

MedShare's first shipment, a half-container sponsored by a Gilroy church, was sent last month to Owerri, Nigeria. The organization is planning to ship its first full container of supplies this month to a hospital in Ecuador.

Gloves and sutures are the most requested items, Haupt said. "None of the material we're talking about has been contaminated. It has never come in contact with a patient. This stuff is just taken and thrown away." He said. "We're just saying, please don't do that."

The facts about hospital waste

-- U.S. hospitals generate more than 7,000 tons of waste every day, or more than 2.5 million tons annually.

-- As much as 80 to 85 percent of a health care facility's refuse is nonhazardous solid waste.

-- Hospitals are the fourth-largest waste generators, behind business services, restaurants and construction.